"My biggest influence is life!"
Meet Nox Bond, Founder/Owner/CEO. at Next Level DJ Coalition and Real Life Music, LLC
Next Level DJ Coalition is the #1 DJ Coalition on Google. It has over 700 members, who are various DJs, Blogs, Websites, Magazines, Radio Stations, Promoters, Models, Influencers, Artists, PDs, MDs, and Music Industry Executives.
Real Life Music, LLC is an international amalgamation of top-tier Record Labels that create industry-quality music. Each artist has his own imprint in a Major Label structure. It has its own Production department and its own Radio Promotions company, as well as its own Model Agency and its own DJ Coalition. Real Life Music, LLC even owns its own NFT company and its own Radio Station!
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to Valiant CEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Nox Bond: Thank you! I’m honored to be here, fam. My name’s NoxBond. I own Real Life Music, LLC and Next Level DJ Coalition. We are a company that built and is scaling up our own Music Industry. I believe I have one of the only companys in existence with no overhead. Especially in the music industry. The only overhead is the websites operation and things like that. We don’t have to “pay” employees as cash is not our currency.
It started as a record label, with me trying for 20 years to break into a very locked down music industry and spending a ludicrous amount of money. In the process I got millions of streams, and a network worth more than I could ever pay for.
I started Next Level DJ Coalition in 2008, and our first play was just a mixtape run. I got my single on about 30 different mixtapes, and drove up the online streams of my first single to 500,000 on MySpace. Life happened and I had to sit the Coalition to the side for quite some time.
In 2020 I brought it back, and since then we have become the #1 DJ Coalition on Google. We are in every state, and we saturate the radio stations and magazines and conference calls and platforms. We have partnerships with major companies like LiveMixtapes, Beatroot, Made In Memphis, and Digiwaxx, the best record pool in the industry. We have celebrity conference calls every week with Digiwaxx. We have even had other DJ Coalitions form inside of our DJ Coalition. We affiliate with the other DJ Coalitions, and we are just trying to make the Music Industry a better place!
The Purpose of Next Level DJ Coalition is to promote the music provided by Real Life Music, LLC and the members of the DJ Coalition.
The first successful artist we broke is Trill Will, @trillwill386 who has millions of streams, and got a distribution deal with UMG and a partnership/branding deal with CMG.
I myself have millions of streams and views on the various platforms.
Who has been the most influential person(s) in your life and how did they impact you? How did that lead to where you are today?
Nox Bond: For the most part, I had no choice but to be independent. I did not have any role models or any influences. My drive started when I was a child, I have always had this desire to unify companies under one Umbrella. I have always had this burning desire to create music, which started as poetry. I think not having someone to rely on or look up to forced me to be the one other people look up to.
Musically, my top 6 may have some subconsciousness impact on my creativity , so that would be Jay Z, T.I., Kanye, Eminem, Lil Wayne, and 2Pac.
Masonry had a major influence on my personality and character and personal growth. I became a better, more mature person through it’s lessons.
My Brother and business partner Trill Will had an influence on Real Life Music, LLC expanding and signing other artists, by being the first person to sign me as an A&R to Savage Life/Supa Unit.
My biggest influence is life!
2020 was a challenging year for all of us, particularly for businesses. How did the pandemic impact your business? Please list some of the problems that you faced, and how you handled them.
Nox Bond: The pandemic did not impact or effect us at all. If anything, it helped spur our growth. Three years ago, before the pandemic started, I was having issues moving around because it conflicted with me being near a phone to do my full time job of being a freight broker . I was already wanting to break as an artist without touring, Rewind a couple more years, I did a show and I filled the venue, but aside from the one song on the radio nobody knew my music, which was greatly disappointing. At that point I decided I don’t want to perform for strangers anymore, I want to become famous before touring. That was almost heretical in the music industry. Everyone tours.
So before The Pandemic started, I was already building my company with the sole purpose of breaking artists without having to travel. When the lock down started, a lot of DJs didn’t have anywhere to go so we gave them online opportunities and a team of people to support them, and they arrived in droves. Since the majority of work became online, we take very little risks. We have certain members who do continue to tour, and I advise them to stand with their arms crossed, wear a mask, and keep their distance from everyone. Health is Wealth. The world has been changed from Covid. I have no false impressions that life will “go back to normal”, the sooner we understand that the World as a whole has changed, and we learn how to move accordingly, the better off we will be as a people. Things seem to be coming back with the clubs, but they really aren’t. They don’t have the same crowds they did in 2019. A lot of companies haven’t had any activity at all since 2019. In my opinion companies like mine, where everything is done online, and people are safe, is the future of the music industry!
The pandemic led to a myriad of cultural side effects, including one that was quite unexpected that is informally known as “The Great Resignation”. Did this widespread trend affect you in any way?
Nox Bond: I have a very unique perspective on The Great Resignation. Keep in mind that with my company, I have 700 “employees” , and the currency for their salary isn’t cash. It doesn’t cost me anything to pay my DJs. However, my DJs receive major benefits that have an impact. For instance, through our Digiwaxx partner we were able to place DJ Sean Money on Shade 45, and I have a radio syndication network of 7 radio stations that I place DJs on. We give them free promotion and marketing.
These are the independent business owners who spend their own money on promotion and marketing and things like this, so it is saving them more money than they would spend since they are getting it directly from us with no “middle man”. In other words, their value goes up. So when someone quit their job, and decided they wanted to be a promoter, if they happened to wander over to our direction, they may have gotten raised from a promoter, to a promoter and DJ, shown what to do, given a record pool of original music with licenses to sell or use it, placed on multiple radio stations, and given a platform for mixtapes to be dropped on our partner site LiveMixtapes where it got thousands of views automatically.
I have had DJs tell me they have been waiting for 3 years to get an account on LiveMixtapes. That’s value. Now that DJ, overnight, has more of a platform than a lot of DJs who get paid to play in clubs. Add in the network of over 700 like-minded people, and now they have a support system and artists, djs, magazines, and promoters to work with. Why would they want to go work for someone else if we give them the chance to work for their self?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. How do you feel about this trend? Explain.
Nox Bond: It makes perfect sense. The employees are unhappy. The percentages are too far apart. Instead of paying their employees a good wage, the corporations make Billions of dollars in profits and give it to their leadership. They treat the employees poorly. If they would just pay more money and treat people kinder and take a little bit of a hit, then they could change the world, but if not they will lose the people.
People are tired of being under payed and under appreciated. Fr example., According to statista.com “Walmart generated revenues of about 141.67 billion U.S. dollars in the fourth quarter of 2020” so in one quarter they generated enough revenue to change the World. What do they do with it? Do they pay their employees? No, the employees make a few dollars an hour. 2Pac said it in an interview : “We are hungry. Please let us in.”. People won’t ask forever. Eventually they will figure out an alternative way in.
According to a study by Harvard Business Review, Employees between 30 and 45 years old have had the greatest increase in resignation rates, with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. That can be quite an alarming rate. What advice would you share to increase employee retention?
Nox Bond: That fits exactly what I am saying. These aren’t children. These are people in the prime of their life who are tired of throwing away their life for a company that doesn’t appreciate them. We have a 100 percent retention rate. Although we have had to remove people over personal conflicts, nobody voluntarily left.
What do we do differently? My friend, everything. We are not a company, we are a Family. I introduce each new member as our new Brother or Sister. I do for my family whatever I possibly can, and I do not charge them. Further, I go out of my way to provide them opportunities and benefits they can not get anywhere else, and still, we don’t charge fees. We give them a flyer that surpasses their local competition in graphic quality , that has a monetary value of $250 , and still, we don’t charge them fees. We get them on radio stations, magazines, blogs, and mixtapes. We put them on LiveMixtapes. I host mixtapes, I do interviews. Guess what I don’t do?
If you said “Charge your people”. You hit the nail on the head. I even give them ways that they can make money, such as selling our promotional packages and receiving commision. We put them on conference calls, and give them a family. All of this for free. Cash is not my currency.
Employers : Appreciate your Employees. Treat them like family. Be fair and loyal. Be liberal with salaries. However, as proven by The Great Resignation, they can make money anywhere, you need to provide unique benefits they can’t get elsewhere.
According to a Nature Human behavior study, In 2020, 80% of US workers reported feeling that they have too many things to do and not enough time to do them – a phenomenon known as “time poverty”. What is your take on the work-life balance? Explain.
Nox Bond: I can help with this! Time is funny. It seems like as we get older, time seems to go faster! It seems like when we slow our breathing, time seems to slow down. In fact, if we get into a shuttle and fly off into space, time DOES slow down. Time is relative, and time poverty is based on poor Time-Management! Time-Management is so crucial that it should be taught in schools! There is a monstrous amount of wasted time. The typical person spends a good percentage of their day on their phone or computer, scrolling through different things, watching videos, watching movies, and wasting time. Apr 23, 2021 — According to a new study on Scotsman.com, the average person spends 59 hours a week using the Internet.
That’s around eight-and-a-half hours a day.” That’s a third of their day. You only have 24 hours. So instead of struggling with your time, just stop wasting it! Get two monitors, and have one of them playing your music or movies, but have a second screen and on that screen Work without stopping. There is always something to do. If you spend your time watching movies or being on your social media, there is no return. You get some endorphins, but no ROI. all that time you invested has no pay off. Take that same time and spend it wisely, doing something that will have some type of return. If you take out all of the idle time, you will free up time to work, to rest and to play, and to spend time on Family and God. When time goes too fast, slow down. Slow your breathing and try to be more in the moment.
A more recent survey by Joblist asked about 3,000 respondents if they’re actively thinking about leaving their job. That survey found that 73% of 2,099 respondents who answered this question on their employment plans are considering quitting. How are you preparing for the future to counter this potentially persistent problem?
Nox Bond: We are scaling up and working on automating our on-boarding procedure to be able to give all of these new entrepreneurs the guidance, team, and platforms they need to succeed. We are also creating branches in key cities for Real Life Music, LLC and our team of A&Rs are keeping their ears and eyes peeled for the newest and hottest talent to bring in to the Umbrella. When these people work for their self, a lot of them end up in the music industry, so you are more than Welcome at Next Level DJ Coalition and Real Life Music, LLC! If you are a promoter, DJ, Blogger, Journalist, Blog, Website, Radio Station, PD, MD, Influencer, Model, Dancer, A&R, Music Executive, etc we have a spot for you! https://www.nextleveldjcoalition.com/dj-registration. We are quite a bit more picky with our artists, but you can definitely submit your music!
Thank you for all that, our readers are grateful for your insightful comments! Now, if the Great Resignation isn’t your greatest concern, what is the #1 most pressing challenge you’re trying to solve in your business right now?
Nox Bond: Every challenge has a solution. Our biggest challenge is breaking into terrestrial FM radio. There are a finite number of stations, and the majority of them are controlled by a small circle of people. We are working on it. In fact one of our Sponsors, Renaldo Creative just got picked up by an FM station in Salina, KS Kiss FM, and we are now submitting music to Shade 45. DJ Sean Money got picked up and our record Addy from Shootah with our Rite 1 imprint was played on Shade 45. My DJ , that is to say, my personal DJ , DJ Jumpoff, has a show on HipHopWeekly.com Radio so I am on there every week, and a few other radio stations, one of which is FM. My Program Director works for Cumulus, and we just promoted DJ Riggz to President of Radio Promotions, but this is an up-hill battle. It’s our biggest challenge, but we already have it part way solved. We just have to scale up!
As a label, our biggest challenge is teaching the artists to properly release music. They are so accustomed to getting a song off of youtube, dropping it on their facebook, and going on to the next song. We have to hit the brakes. We have an onboarding and development process. And then we show them the right way to do things. A lot of them get frustrated, because they were always told a lease is fine, and they don’t need to have paperwork, etc. So when we are giving them contracts to have their producers and features sign, and telling them we can’t drop music we don’t own because we can’t copyright it, it’s very frustrating to them. I recently released a video on Youtube entitled The Pixar Objective to discuss how to promote music releases the same way they do theatrical releases!
Before we finish things off, we do have one last question. If you had $10 Million Dollars to spend in one day, what would you spend it on?
Nox Bond: Easy! I would spend $4,000,000 on buying Companies, Radio Stations, Magazines, Venues, and Websites!
I would spend $1,000,000 on Philanthropy. Specifically, on the construction and operating capital for Orphanages.
I would spend $1,000,000 on my family. Specifically, houses and cars for my immediate family and partners.
I would spend $1,000,000 on myself. Upgrading my house, car, wardrobe, etc.
I would spend $1,000,000 on Bitcoin, Ethereum and various Stocks and Bonds.
I would donate $1,000,000 to Masonry.
I would pay out $1,000,000 in bonuses to my team.
Jed Morley, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Nox Bond for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Nox Bond or his company, you can do it through his – Instagram
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